Posts Tagged 'edinburgh'

Many restaurants in Britain have pretty average fare as far as baked goods are concerned. If you come into a pub or cafe around closing time, you can usually see a film of plastic wrap covering yesterday’s carrot cake for tomorrow’s customers. It’s like their attitude is, “I made this cake from scratch, and Imma dang well keep it around ‘til you eat it. Don’t disappoint me, now!”

The thing is, no one really minds. It is still awesome carrot cake, even if it is a few days running. Plus, they serve it on a cute plate, and no one can say anything against a nice looking piece of cake. This cake was real good. The icing was orange-scented. My friend bought it, but I decided against it, fearing it would make me pine for the fabulous carrot cake a while back. Seriously, I can taste that cake right now. If I wasn’t afraid of gutting up my fingers grating carrots, I would go make that right now. P.S. Did I tell you I nicked my thumb knuckle peeling butternut squash in October? Which gives me scars on every finger but the middle one on my left hand.

I like little kids for their littleness. They dance in the streets. They pick their noses. And 75 percent of the time everyone else misses it unless they are looking down.

Also, this dancer was approximately 10 years old.

Walking it out (lame version),

L

P.S. I have discovered a new obsession with hashtags. A well-placed hashtag makes everything funnier. It’s the punchline to a good tweet. Heaven knows I am rueing the day that social media pop culture has influenced my life so much, but I suppose I cannot remain aloof forever. #wearetheborg

So besides living in rural England, traveling to Edinburgh was my first real excursion into the wide world. As I said before, it was kind of like walking in a movie set. Half the time I felt like I was in a Bourne movie minus the intense music. The architecture was incredible—half the city was Gothic and half was Georgian. You could just feel the history in the high windows and odd-shaped rooms. All in all, it was a really full but relaxed trip, a good mix of spontaneity and planned fun. Enjoy the view!

So the light in the shot is exactly how the light in the room was, which is just dumb chance on my part. And ok, so maybe you don’t think it is awesome. but I love this picture with a super love.

I think I extra love this shot because I took it after I got semi-reamed by some neurotic British guy. I paid a pretty annoying price to get it. Here is the story: We were in the common room of our hostel and some guy that we were hanging out with was annoying the British guy (let’s call him Harry) by taking two pictures with the flash on. Of his friends or something. So Harry comes over all fast and serious and is like, “Hey, I have epilepsy, and I’m really sensitive to the flash, so can you please not be taking pictures with it.” And everyone was super apologetic and sorry, and the guy quit taking pictures.

So later on, I was taking a few quick shots of the room WITHOUT FLASH, and this is the conversation Harry and I had:

Harry: Hey.

Me: Oh, I’m so sorry, I’m really not using the flash; I’m just taking a couple of pictures really quick and I promise without the flash so…

Harry: Me and my friends were just having a piss.

Me: What?

Harry: I was just having a piss.

Me: Um…sorry.

Harry: Where are you from? (Because he could tell I had no idea what he was talking about.)

Me: Um, the United States. (And I was thinking, “Shoot! Why didn’t I say Canada? Now he really doesn’t like me.”)

Harry: Ok, we were just having a laugh at you. I don’t really have epilepsy. (He said all of this very condescendingly.)

Me: Oh. (And I just kind of stared blankly at him.)

Harry: I used to work in the film industry, and so I got tired of all the flashes, and it is just so annoying when people are flashing pictures of their friends every five seconds, innit? I mean, I want you all to have memories of your trip or whatever, but if you could just not take pictures, that would be lovely.

Me: Right. (But I’m thinking, “Dude, he took two pictures. Two. Chill yourself out. Plus, you don’t need to be telling me. I’m not even using the flash, which you darn well know.”)

Harry: So what do you shoot with?

And I showed him.

Harry: Ah, very nice. Cheers.

And walks away. And I was annoyed. And produced this shot. Which I will now cherish for its sweet composition and fantastically interesting depth of field rather than for the psychoness of Harry.